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WZLO

Dover-Foxcroft, Maine United States
Broadcast area	Bangor, Maine
Frequency	103.1 MHz
Branding	103.1 WZLO
Programming
Format	Adult album alternative
Affiliations	CBS News Radio
Ownership
Owner	The Zone Corporation
Sister stations	WKIT, WZON
History
First air date	May 1981; 43 years ago (1981-05)
Former call signs	WDME-FM (1980–2009) WZON-FM (2009–2012)
Call sign meaning	"Loft"
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	12882
Class	A
ERP	1,500 watts
HAAT	204 meters (669 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	45°5′37.6″N 69°4′58.1″W / 45.093778°N 69.082806°W / 45.093778; -69.082806
Translator(s)	98.3 W252CT (Bangor)
Repeater(s)	100.3-2 WKIT-HD2 (Brewer)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen live
Website	www.wzlofm.com

WZLO (103.1 FM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting an adult album alternative format. Licensed to Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, the station serves the Bangor area. It is also broadcast on 98.3 in Bangor using an FM translator. The studios and offices are in Bangor, while the transmitter is off Route 15 in Charleston, Maine.

The station is owned by The Zone Corporation, the broadcast company owned by authors Tabitha and Stephen King.

History

Frank Alvin Delle Jr. and Eugene Joseph Gosselin, doing business as Radio Voice of Dover-Foxcroft, was granted a construction permit for a new station on 1340 AM on February 8, 1967; it signed on August 13 as WDME. The call sign stood for the home city of Dover, Maine. WDME was part of a group of stations associated with Delle, along with WLKN in Lincoln and WFAD in Middlebury, Vermont.

Radio Voice of Dover-Foxcroft also requested the addition of an FM allocation on 103.1 MHz on January 13, 1967; a construction permit for a station on this frequency was issued to Delle on February 28, 1980. That September, Frederic Hirsch's Community Communications, Inc., announced it would purchase WDME and the WDME-FM permit for $116,000. On December 20, 1980, WDME began programming an easy listening format; in May 1981, WDME-FM signed on as a simulcast. Hirsch was previously an assistant at WNBC in New York City and news director at WVOX in New Rochelle, New York, and bought WDME after deciding to leave the New York metropolitan area.

In October 1983, WDME, having outgrown its previous studio facility, moved to a converted sleeper car formerly used by Amtrak. "Amtrak 3205", also named the "Gulf Stream", was built by the Budd Company for the New York Central Railroad in 1949, and had been retired and put up for sale by Amtrak due to the cost of converting the steam-heated car to electric heat. Hirsch, a railroad buff, bought the car at auction in Boston and had it relocated to Dover-Foxcroft, on a specially-laid 90-foot (27 m) track. In reflection of its unusual studio, train noises were included in WDME's station identifications. The station's music format was described by the Bangor Daily News as ranging "from light rock to light country". WDME also emphasized sports programming, carrying games of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, New England Patriots, Boston Bruins, high school sports, and University of Maine hockey, as well as a Sunday night sports talk program.

WDME's 1340 AM facility was closed down on February 16, 1991; its license was allowed to expire. WDME (AM) had simulcast 99 percent of WDME-FM's programming; in 1984, most separate programming had been airing at night. In addition, the AM signal had a smaller range than the FM, and closing the AM and its separate transmitter site allowed WDME to eliminate costs specific to that facility. WDME-FM continued as a stand-alone FM station, branded as "D-103". The station was known for its folksy portrayal of rural culture in the north woods of Maine. It featured locally-known personalities such as John Simcoe and Paul Knaut.

Community Communications sold WDME-FM to Ganley Communications for $150,000 in 1993. Hirsch would remain with the station to do news and sales work; his decision to sell was prompted by his desire to consult other radio stations, along with the increased financial pressures in station ownership. The new owners were Jim Ganley, who had worked at WWFX in Belfast before joining the May Company as a credit portfolio manager, and his brother Rick, an on-air host at WHEB in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Ganleys replaced Boston Red Sox broadcasts with the Portland Sea Dogs in 1995, in the wake of the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike; the station did not want to air games featuring replacement players at the same price as games with the regular players. The move, which made WDME-FM the northernmost station on the Portland Sea Dogs Radio Network and led to an article in The Sporting News, was in part inspired by the Boston Red Sox Radio Network's decision to carry Pawtucket Red Sox games at the end of the 1994 season.

Ganley Communications agreed to sell WDME-FM to Richard Thau and Joyce L. Wemer's Mid-Maine Media for $275,000 in late 1995; the sale was completed on February 1, 1996. The new owners restored Red Sox broadcasts to the station at the request of listeners. In November 1998, Thau moved WDME-FM's studios from the "Gulf Stream" rail car, which could not be expanded, to a former bank building in downtown Dover-Foxcroft's Union Square. The rail car was sold, with its new owner relocating it to the Four Corners in Sebec, Maine. Thau noted the difficulty in running a radio station out of a train car; a WDME-FM employee later described the car as a "tin can".

After initially announcing a $175,000 sale to Taildragger Communications in May 2000, Mid-Maine Media sold WDME-FM to the Zone Corporation—the broadcasting company owned by authors Stephen and Tabitha King—for $175,100 in a deal completed on March 1, 2001. Zone already owned WZON and WKIT-FM in Bangor. WDME-FM's adult contemporary, sports, and news format had by 2003 shifted to an adult album alternative format. While station management denied at the time of the sale that WDME-FM would use its existing sports programming as the basis to move to a full-time sports radio format similar to that of WZON, the station had become a simulcast of WZON by March 2009. The call sign WZON-FM was adopted on August 27.

WZON-FM switched to a progressive talk format on January 4, 2010. The station continued to carry Boston Red Sox baseball, along with WZON. Shortly after WZON (AM) began simulcasting WZON-FM on November 1, 2010, Red Sox games were moved exclusively to the AM station (which previously shared the broadcasts with WDME/WZON-FM). WZON-FM began stunting with Christmas music in November 2012, with the previous format moving exclusively to WZON (AM). The call letters were changed to WZLO on November 23, and the station returned to an adult album alternative format, initially branded as "103.1 The Loft", on December 26, 2012.

On December 2, 2024, Stephen King would announce that WZLO and its sister stations would shut down at the end of the month.

Translator

References

1. "Facility Technical Data for WZLO". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. Radio-Locator.com/WZLO
3. "WZLO Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
4. ^ "New AM stations". Broadcasting. February 13, 1967. p. 83.
5. Broadcasting Yearbook 1981 (PDF). 1981. p. C-104. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
6. ^ Fybush, Scott. "Maine Radio History, 1971–1996". Archives @ BostonRadio.org. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
7. "Lincoln radio station gets approval for FM". Bangor Daily News. August 16, 1974. p. 8. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
8. "New FM stations". Broadcasting. January 23, 1967. p. 83.
9. "For the Record". Broadcasting. April 7, 1980. p. 151.
10. ^ "WDME radio sold, FM to be built". Bangor Daily News. September 20–21, 1980. p. ME 11. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
11. ^ Neff, Andrew (November 12, 1993). "Hirsch sells Dover-Foxcroft radio station". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
12. ^ Kekacs, Andrew (October 1, 1990). "WDME owner happy to be making waves". Bangor Daily News. p. 26. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
13. ^ "Dover radio station WDME moves into railroad car". Bangor Daily News. United Press International. October 4, 1983. p. 23. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
14. "Radio in a rail car". Bangor Daily News. January 7–8, 1984. p. ME 19. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
15. ^ "WDME-AM to cease broadcast Feb. 16". Bangor Daily News. February 13, 1991. p. 7. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
16. "Dover-Foxcroft radio station extends area". Bangor Daily News. September 20, 1984. p. 23. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
17. "Changing Hands". Broadcasting & Cable. October 4, 1993. p. 58.
18. ^ Neff, Andrew (March 30, 1995). "WDME picks the Sea Dogs over Red Sox". Bangor Daily News. pp. C8, C12. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
19. ^ Neff, Andrew (May 4, 1995). "Listeners sticking with WDME-FM". Bangor Daily News. pp. C9, C12. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
20. "Changing Hands". Broadcasting & Cable. November 13, 1995. p. 67.
21. ^ Neff, Andrew (March 14, 1996). "Red Sox return to WDME". Bangor Daily News. pp. C7, C10. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
22. ^ "WDME radio relocates to Dover-Foxcroft square". Bangor Daily News. November 20, 1998. p. B3. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
23. ^ "Elsewhere". The M Street Journal. May 24, 2000. p. 7.
24. ^ Neff, Andrew (April 5, 2001). "WDME will air local sports". Bangor Daily News. pp. C7, D1. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
25. ^ "FMs". Broadcasting & Cable. January 22, 2001. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
26. Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2002–2003. 2003. p. D-202.
27. Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2003–2004. 2003. p. D-213.
28. Fybush, Scott (March 9, 2009). "CSB School of Broadcasting Folds". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
29. ^ "Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
30. Hayward, Meghan (December 31, 2009). "WZON 103.1 New Format". WABI TV5. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
31. Venta, Lance (December 26, 2012). "There's A Loft In Bangor". RadioInsight. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
32. "Stephen King To Shutter Three Bangor Area Stations". RadioInsight. December 2, 2024. Retrieved December 2, 2024.

External links

• Facility details for Facility ID 12882 (WZLO) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WZLO in Nielsen Audio's FM station database
• Facility details for Facility ID 145024 (W252CT) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• W252CT at FCCdata.org

• Radio stations in Maine
• Radio stations established in 1981
• 1981 establishments in Maine
• Dover-Foxcroft, Maine
• Adult album alternative radio stations in the United States
• Stephen King